Plea against restraint on railway employees' wards from playing for Railways: High Court seeks BCCI stand

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday, March 27 sought response of the Centre and the BCCI on a plea challenging its verdict which upheld the cricketing body's decision to restrain wards of railway employees from playing for the railways in the 'under-19' and 'under-23' categories.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani asked BCCI and the Ministry of Railways to indicate their stand by May 8, the next date of hearing of the appeal by railway employees' wards against the single judge order.

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The February 21 order had dismissed a plea challenging the BCCI's May 3, 2018 letter sent to the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), informing it about the decision which had also been ratified by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA).

The single judge order said that no interference was warranted with the decision of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the CoA.

The order came on a plea by 10 wards of railway employees who said that junior teams were allowed to participate in the tournaments organised by the BCCI from 1980 and since then, the railway employees' children had been representing the department and winning accolades.

The wards of the railways employees have challenged the single judge's order and sought quashing of the May 3, 2018 letter sent to RSPB by BCCI.

The BCCI in its letter had said that its technical committee recommended that the RSPB team should only consist of players who were on permanent employment with the railways and the recommendation has been ratified by the CoA.

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"The railway teams have been playing in different BCCI tournaments for more than 30 years and have consistently played well and contributed not only to Indian cricket but to world cricket as well by producing excellent players in the likes of Sanjay Bangar, Murali Kartik, Karn Sharma, JP Yadav and Harvinder Singh," the petition before the single judge said.